PMDX Forum
General Category => SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories => Topic started by: Jawno on March 06, 2020, 05:49:02 PM
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I'm a newb at this. I finally got the computer to recognize my SmartBob-424 card. It seems I've fixed the invalid or unknown device error. I have the STMelectronics port showing in Device Manager with no exclamation points. I tried to get the machine to do something today. My computer is a Win 7, 8 GB ram, 64 bit system. I tried putting in some code in MDI. A simple program, just G1Y1. The movement was made in Mach4 on my screen but no movement on the machine. When I started Mach4 I got a message in the History window that said Lua:Error occurred while opening file. I went into Diagnostics for the 424 card. When I make a move in Mach 4 the output lights turn green and yellow for the axis that I'm moving but nothing moves. At the bottom of the Diagnostics window under encoder position it says **Disabled** in the first window and Rawln 0x000007ff in the other window. Also I have a new light on the 424 board. I think its an "enable light". Its near a barrel shape capacitor, lower center of the board. I haven't done anything with the emergency stop switch. Could that be holding things up? My board still has the red connector on the E stop that came with the board. I would like to get this working. I feel like its close but no cookies yet. Thanks in advance for any help you could offer me. Not sure what other info to supply. Mach4 build #4162, screen set name wx4, set, PMDX SmartBob-USB Device: PMDX-424(RevD PCB)on COM3, Serial #: SN38024(D1), plugin version: 0.53.263, bootloader version: 1.15.76, firmware version: 0.60.208
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When you tried the motion, did the DROs on the Mach4 screen change (i.e. for "G1Y1" did the Y axis readout go to 1.000 from where ever it was)?
How do you have the PMDX-424 wired to your motor drivers? What motor drivers are you using? And what settings do you have on the PMDX plug-in config in the "Motor Config" tab?
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Yes the DRO changed on the mach4 screen. Not sure what the configuration settings are for the SmartBob. I'll have to check that next time I goto the shop (tomorrow). I am using geckodrives. G203 or 204, I forget which. I have three wires to each drive from the SmartBob, step and dir and ?.
I was wondering if I need to tell Mach4 something about my motors. Like step size, baud rate or something like that. If this is in the configuration settings then I'll look tomorrow. I know I left all the settings alone on the screens that say don't change these unless PMDX tells you to.
The Lua error never said what file so it may have nothing to do with the problem. I haven't wired up the limit switches or E-stop yet. figured I should try to get some movement first.
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Okay, I looked at the machine today. Under control configuration it has counts/unit. The box is blank. Under velocity in units/min the box is blank. under acceleration in units (sec 2) the box is blank. also the boxes for G force, backlash, Reverse and Enable Delay (ms) the boxes are all blank.
Also under axis mapping slave 1 is blank. I am using the dual motor feature on my x axis. These are assigned as motor 3a and 3b. Should I have something in the slave 1 box? Also under toolpath the boxes for Disable VBO tool path, use a frame to draw the tool path and use lazy Tool Path Update, the boxes are all blank.
I'm thinking I should have some info in some of these boxes,in particular, the counts/unit and velocity in units/minute. Wouldn't you agree? Not sure what to put there though. Any help is appreciated.
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Okay I finally got the info you requested. Under motor configuration, the step/dir pinout configuration is Normal. Step/dir common configuration says step/dir common is ground.
for motors 0 to 3: Step pulse width is 5us, step polarity is active high and Dir polarity is Normal.
I tried to input numbers into the boxes on the control configuration screen (the one with the graph) but couldn't get it to accept any keyboard inputs for counts/unit or velocity in units/min.
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For Gecko G203V, PMDX plug-in motor config "step/dir common" should be ground and the step/dir polarity should be "normal". 5us step pulse if fine also. So you are all set there.
In the standard Mach4 Configure->Control, "Motors" tab, you need to click on a motor along the right edge to display the current settings for that motor. THEN you can edit them and save them Then click on the next motor, etc.
If you are using the PMDX-424's built-in "clone" feature for running 2 motors for a single axis, configure Mach3 as if there is only one motor on that axis (PMDX "motor 3"). So leave the "Slave1", etc. boxes empty.
And just to ask the obvious question - are you sure you have the "step" signal from the PMDX-424 wired to the G203V "step" terminal? And "dir" to "dir"? And PMDX-424 "com" to G203V "Common"?
When you issue move commands, do you see the PMDX-424 "steps" LED flicker? You should if you see the Mach4 DROs change, but just making sure.
With the system powered on and Mach4 "enabled", do the motors have holding torque (i.e. can you spin the shaft by hand)? You may need to unmount the motor to test this.
For the Lua issue, go on the Mach4 support forums and ask how to troubleshoot that. There is a link to that forum from the main PMDX forums page.
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Okay I will check the wiring between the SmartBob and the gecko's. I did notice the led's on the SmartBob flickering once, usually I've been concentrating on the monitor.
The motors do have holding torque, at least I'm sure the x axis does as I was trying to count the number of teeth on the motor gear (rack and pinion) and had to shut down so i could move the axis.
Again, thanks for the help. The more I work on this, the more it feels like a driver issue. Mach4 and the 424 board seem to be doing what they are supposed to be doing. I am not sure I have the power supply wired correctly. Its wired to the drivers and they send power to the motors. Is that correct?
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Yes the led flickers upon execution of a movement command. Yes the common, step and dir connections from the 424 board are connected to terminals 8, 9 and ten on the Gecko (203v) which are marked as common, step and dir. I have the motors wired to terminals 3, 4, 5, 6, winding A is blk(3), winding -A is green (4), winding B is red (5)and winding -B is white (6). I have the red power wire from the supply connected to terminal 1, the power terminal on the gecko and the black wire from the supply connected to terminal 2, the ground wire on the gecko. One thing I should mention is that I have the power supply wired for 110 volts. It said it would supply either so I figured 110 would be easiest to wire and if I needed more power I could rewire it later. I'm running 640 oz-in steppers. I think they are rated at 3.5 amps. I meant to grab that info when I was at the shop but forgot. The power supply is rated at 15 amps I believe.
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Okay, one thing I was wondering about. My power supply output has two positive terminals, two negative terminals and a common terminal. I don't have anything hooked up to the common terminal. Wondering if I should have it connected to something and if so, what. I tried to get a pic but its a pdf file.
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I have a bit of an update. No luck yet with getting the machine to move but I did run across a post that said that the choice between a one ten volt power supply and a two twenty volt supply depends upon the inductance of the motors being used. I'm using fairly large motors. 640 oz-in, 45 volt at 4 amps. So maybe 110 is not enough volts to turn them. I need to calculate the inductance and see if I can figure out what size supply I need to use. I just set mine up for 110 because it was "easier". I'm going to try to find the formula for calculating this again. Does anyone here happen to know what the formula is?
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110 or 220V???????? I sure do hope that this is the INPUT to your motor power supply and what you are putting into the G203Vs. 'Cause putting 110V into a G203V will probably kill the "un-killable" 203V :)
The motor is rated for 45V? I don't have a lot of experience with a lot of different motors, but I am used to seeing motors with a voltage rating in the 4-10V kind of range. And with a rule of thumb that as best I can recall went something like this: with a switching motor driver (like the 203V and most drivers) you can power the driver with 8x to 10x the motor's rated voltage, depending on the motor inductance and how hot you wanted the motor to run.
Can you post (upload) the PDF for your power supply? You probably can just wire the + and - terminals to the gecko drivers.
Grasping at straws and a really basic question - are you sure you have the motor wiring correct? If you have a multimeter you can measure the resistance through the windings. You should see a low resistance between the two wires on the same phase (i.e. A and -A), and infinite resistance between wires of different phases. This means a low resistance between the black and green wires, and between the red and white. You should see infinite resistance between the black and either red or white, and between the green and either red or white.
Pictures of your wiring might be helpful. Or not.
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I've come up with some stats on the motor and power supply. I have three Nema 34 motors rated at 4.05 volts, 4.5 amps current, .9 ohms resistence, 6.8 mH inductance and 640 oz-in of torque. I also have a fourth motor on the Z axis which is a Nema 23 rated at 3 amps current, 1.2 ohms resistence, 4.7 mH inductance and 2 Nm torque. My power supply is rated at 1200 watts, 60 volts dc and 20 amps. The input is 110 volts, the drivers are connected to the output side which should be 60 volts, correct?
I will check the motor connections. Can I do this at the drivers? all the cables are heat shrinked and not easy to get at the wires. Everything is in drag chains and all cable is shielded.
I've attached the pdf's for the power supply and the X and Y axis motors. I'm still not sure where to run the common wire for the output. I have the two plus outputs attached to the driver power (2 into 4)and the two minus outputs attached to driver power ground (again 2 into 4). In other words there are two terminals each for plus and minus on the power supply and I have these split into four wires going to each of the four geckodrives.
I'll have to try to take a picture of the wiring next time I'm at the shop. Should be tomorrow.
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Your wiring matches the motor data sheet, so that should be OK. Other than verifying you really do have the motor's black & green wires to the Gecko phase A terminals (pins 3 & 4) and red & white wires to Gecko phase B (pins 5 & 6).
On your power supply, leave the "C" terminal unconnected. Yes, you should see 60VDC going to your G203Vs. And it shouldn't make any difference to the Gecko drivers or your motors whether you wire the power supply for 110 or 220VAC input.
I just realized I didn't double-check how you said you had the step/dir/common connected from the PMDX-424 to the G203V. You said pins 8, 9 and 10 were common, step dir. It should be pin 8 is dir, 9 is step and 10 is +5V Common (exactly reversed from what you said). So double check that to make sure it wasn't just a typo. And verify the connections at the 424 end (i.e. the 424's "COM" to the G203V "COMMON", etc.).
Do you have anything connected to the G203V pin 7 (labeled "Disable")? You should not.
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I got to the shop today and took photo's of the electronics. I do have dir on 8 of the gecko, step on 9 and com on 10. I have nothing hooked up on the disable connector. I was guessing its for emergency stop which I haven't wired up yet, Or maybe not, but its open right now. I do have black and green to phase A and red and white to phase B. I did a resistance check at the drive by probing the screws that hold the wires down. I got zero resistance on both phase A connections and phase B connections.
However I tried to do a voltage check on the power supply wires. I stuck one probe (the black one) on the power ground terminal (1) and then as soon as I touched the power terminal (2) I got a nasty spark so I backed off from doing anymore testing. I did see that the power led in the geckodrive was still lit afterward so hopefully no damage to the drive.
Anyway, attached are some pictures of the electronics.
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Sounds like you still had the meter in "resistance" or "continuity" mode (instead of DC volts) when you tried to measure the motor power supply :) I hope your meter survived.
A picture is worth a thousand words! It looks like the screw heads on the PMDX-424 step/dir connectors are sticking up near the top of the plastic. They should be down/recessed, like the screw heads in the G203V connectors. The PMDX-424 screw terminals are "rising clamp" type, which means you turn the screw clockwise (when looking down from above) to clamp the wire, and counter-clockwise to release the wire. It looks like you have put the wire in, then turned the screws counter-clockwise to clamp the wires. This does not form a reliable connection.
Here is how to verify that this is the issue:
Start with everything powered on and Mach4 "enabled". Using the jog buttons on the "Jogging" tab, jog the Y axis in the positive direction (i.e. "Y+"). Doesn't matter how much, just enough that you see the Y axis DRO increment some. Take you meter on DC Volts and measure on the voltage from the "com" terminal (black meter probe) to the "dir" terminal (red meter probe) on the PMDX-424 connector that you have labeled "Y". It should be either near zero volts or near 5 volts (I don't recall which). Also measure the voltage at the G203V for the Y axis with black meter probe on "common" and red meter probe on "dir". You should see very close to the same reading. Then press the "y-" button just long enough to see the Y axis DRO decrement. Repeat the measurements at the PMDX and G203V connectors. You should always have seen approximately the same voltages at the PMDX and G203V connectors. And if the first readings were near zero, the second readings should have been near 5V. If the first readings were near 5V then the second should have been near 0V.
If you don't ever see a reading near 5V **AT THE G203V** that most likely means the the wires are not making good contact in the PMDX screw terminal connectors. Remove the wires, turn the screws fully COUNTER-clockwise, re-insert the wires and turn the screws CLOCKWISE to tighten. You hopefully should now get motor movement.
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Progress! I have movement! A couple issues though. I tried redoing the screw terminals. Un screwing the screws pulling out the wires, re-inserting them and screwing the terminals back down. I then fired up everything. I couldn't locate the jog screen so I tried inputting commands in MDI again. I got movement on both the Y and Z axis's (when commanded) . However when I command a y move the Z axis responds and visa versa when I make a z command the y axis responds. I'm assuming this is an easy fix. Okay so then I tried an X move, again in MDI, and got nothing. That's when I noticed a message in the History window that said "axis 0 commanded while disabled". I don't know if it was there before inputting the x axis command or not but I'm guessing it was after. Anyway about this time I found the jogging button and tried jogging in y (the Z motor moved) and Z (the y motor moved) but the x axis buttons were ghosted. I haven't tried the multimeter test yet. I will be going back to the shop this afternoon to see if I can figure out how to correct everything. Any suggestions would be much appreciated and thank you 12 strings for all the help so far. I can't believe it was such a simple fix as redoing the connections. Now if I can just get the x axis working as well. I'm about ready to try wiring up the limit (homing) switches and the E-stop and can't wait to start burning parts although that's still a ways away.
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Okay, I went back to the shop this afternoon and started the machine. Same situation as before. Z on y axis, Y on Z axis, no x axis movement. X was ghosted in jog. so I tried to get back to the screen where I setup the machine a week or two ago. Where there was the tab for axis mapping. I couldn't get there because it was all ghosted. So I went in and created a new profile and restarted Mach4 and got into the axis mapping configuration screen there was a red x on motor zero which matched the error I got in the History window (axis 0 commanded while disabled). Then I have green checkmarks on y axis with motor one in the box and z axis with motor two in the box. Then I noticed that the next box is A axis and it has a motor 3 in the box. So, out of curiosity I went back into Mach 4, MDI and put in G1A1. and hit the cycle start button and, voila, the x axis moved. Way too much though, I shut if off by hitting the stop button and then put in G1A0, hit cycle start and the machine returned to x zero. The problem was the z axis (designated as Y) moves way too little (about a quarter inch maybe) and the X axis (designated as A) moves way too much, about nine inches for a 1 inch command. So I tried to get back to the screen where I set up the motor parameters but it seems everything is ghosted again. I know this is getting to be a mach4 problem which I'm still learning and not a PMDX issue but you have been so helpful in the past I would appreciate it if you might be able to give me guidance regarding these new issues. I will see what I can figure out elsewhere in the meantime. Thank you for your help so far.
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All righty then!
Based on the pictures you posted earlier, you have Z axis on motor1, Y axis on motor2 and X axis on motor3 (PMDX-424 calls them "3a" and "3b" but Mach4 knows them as a single motor "3").
First, the axis configuration. Go to the "Configure" menu and select "Control". In the dialog window click n the "Axis Mapping" tab. Change things so it looks like the first picture. Then click on the "Motors" tab. See the notes on the 2nd image below. Click on "Motor1" in the upper right to display the motor tuning info below the graph (for the Z axis). Change anything you need then click "apply". Repeat for "Motor2" ("Y" axis) and Motor3 ("X" axis motors).
Finally, make sure the PMDX-424 has the slave motors enabled (probably does, but make sure). Go to the "Configure" menu and select "Plugins" then the PMDX plug-in. Click on the "Feature Config" tab and make the slave motors are enabled (see 3rd image below).
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Arrrg!! Just when I thought we'd gotten over all the rough patches... I went in this morning and made all the changes you'd suggested (The screen 3 change had already been made). Then I went into MDI and input G1X1. and clicked on the enable button then the cycle start button. Nothing. then I noticed the enable light was off on the 424 board. I forget what I did next, I think I looked at the History screen and there was some text in there that was like .03 inches tall, way too small to read. I think this is where I decided to just restart the system, not sure and its not in my notes. When I did, I got that old "USB device not recognized" error. When I click on that box I get a message that says: Error: One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message.
When I clicked on the message, it brought up a tree like the one under Device Manager. It said:
USB root hub (2 ports)
Generic USB Hub (6 ports)
unused port
unused port
unused port
USB mass storage device
Unknown device
unused port.
Okay so the unknown device had the yellow triangle with the exclamation point in it. I double clicked on that and got the following message: USB serial bus controller in control panel windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems (code 43).
So I went into device manager and it had the same list under USB serial bus. I looked in Ports next and it only showed COM1 not COM3 as before. So I tried repairing the VCP file, no luck. Then I tried removing the VCP file completely, then restarting and re-installing it. The computer says it successfully installed the VCP files but there is still nothing in Ports under device Manager except port (COM1).
About this time I realized I could read the History window by double clicking on the button. The first time I did it, it had some messages about not finding the SmartBob board but the last time (after another restart) it said: Lua error occurred while opening filecannot open C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX-424-Sample\Macros\mcLua.mcc No such file or directory.
Seems like two steps forward, one step back. And just when I thought I had everything solved. I am wondering if it could be a computer problem. I have had hard drive problems with this computer before. Not looking forward to moving everything over to a new system though, plus I don't have one handy. Thoughts?
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For the Lua error, look in C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX-424-Sample\Macros and see what is there. This image shows what is on my PC. If you don't see those files then do this:
- Close Mach4 and unplug the PMDX-424 from the USB port
- Rename the Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX-424-Sample directory to some other name (maybe "MyMachine" or something).
- Re-install the PMDX plugin, checking the boxes to install the sample profiles.
- Copy the contents of the macros directory from the newly created PMDX-424-Sample into MyMachine\Macros
- Plug the PMDX-424 into the USB port
- Start Mach4 and see if you still get that Lua error
As a side note - it is a good idea to clone the PMDX sample profiles before editing them. The current PMDX plug-in installer will not overwrite profiles that already exist, but future versions may change this. And if a new plug-in overwrites your highly modified version of the PMDX-424-Sample profile you will be very sad.
Now, for the VCP port issues. Just to make sure, with the PMDX-424 unplugged from the USB, bring up device manager and see if there are any devices with a yellow triangle. If not, plug the USB into the PMDX-424. Does a device a ppear with the yellow triangle? And does the yellow triangle & unknown device go away when you unplug the PMDX-424 USB cable?
If so, try one more thing. But first, what steps did you take to uninstall and re-install the VCP driver? Did you use the steps here:
https://faq.pmdx.com/content/2/8/en/how-to-manually-install-the-virtual-com-port-driver-version-14.html
If you are running Windows10, try unplugging the PMDX-424 and then uninstalling the VCP driver. The do NOT re-install the VCP driver. Instead just plug the PMDX-424 into the USB. With Win10, the "in box" 9i.e. supplied with Windows) driver that is used by the PMDX devices is the preferred driver. See if that works.
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I had a fairly productive day today. I didn't find the image you mentioned of what should be seen in the Macros file. What I have in there is the following list:
load_modules.mcc
load_modules.mcs
m6,mcc
m6.mcs
m162.mcc
m162.mcs
m163.mcc
m163.mcs
And that's it. I'm wondering if I should be unplugging the SmartBob from the computer whenever I shut down? I was leaving it in but that seems to be when I've been getting the device not recognized window.
Anyway, I went through what you told me, I renamed the sample profile. I couldn't find another copy of the plugin. I may have just had it on a thumb drive or something. Anyway, I plugged the PMDX-424 into the USB port, started Mach4 and I still had the Lua error. However I didn't have a device not recognized error so I loaded Mach4 and went in to configure/controls/motors and adjusted some parameters and made some movements. I can't adjust these parameters after changing them once. I assume this is to keep you from accidentally changing them. So I would close Mach4 Hobby. whenever I would try to restart it I would receive the error that another instance of Mach is already running even though I just closed it out. So I would shut down and restart. Once I got the device not recognized window again but I just went in and reinstalled the VCP driver and that seemed to fix everything. Its not showing up in Device Manager/Ports like it was before but it says it was successfully installed and I'm not getting any errors and the 424 board is working like it should. Anyway I did this process several times today, shutting down restarting, plugging in the USB cord, adjusting parameters. At the end of the day all three axis were moving within an accuracy of about three thou per inch so I called that good enough for now.
I do have one other thing I'm not sure how to change. When I make a positive x move the gantry moves in the negative direction and the same with the z axis, a negative move moves the axis in the positive direction. Other than that I'm quite satisfied with how things seem to be working. Looking forward to actually loading a program and starting to burn metal. I've still got some work to do before then but appreciate all the help you've been giving me. I feel like I'm on my way there. So, two questions really, should I unplug the 424 board after shutdown and how to get my two axis's moving the right direction.
no exclamation points in Device Manager
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Sorry - I forgot to post the picture. The only file that I have that you don't is the "mcLua.mcc" file, which (I think) is a combination of the compiled versions of all the other macro files in that directory. I don't know why Mach4 isn't generating that (it should regenerate it every time it runs). That is a question for the Mach4 support forums.
That is total weirdness only being able to change settings once.
There are 2 ways to change the direction of an axis:
(1) Go to the Configure->Control dialog and click on the "Motors" tab. Click on the motor in the upper right that drives the desired axis (i.e. Motor1 for "Z" and Motor3 for "X"), then click the "Reverse?" check-box to check it (or un-check it if it was checked).
Or (2) Go to the PMDX plug-in configruation dialog, click on the "Motor Config" tab. Change the "Dir Polarity" for Motor #1 and Motor #3.
NOTE: Making the change in one place will reflect that change in the other place. You only need to change the setting in one or the other place, not both.
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Okay, I will try making the mentioned change. I think I am good to go for a while now. I just need to research how to hook up the E-stop and the limit switches. I'm going to spend some time sorting out my CAD-CAM program as well. I know I've mentioned this before but I really appreciate all the help you have provided. I would have been lost without it. If I have additional problems I will try starting a new thread. Thank you.
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If you haven't already done so, check out the "Mach4 CNC Controller config.pdf" document in the Mach4Hobby\Docs directory. Limit switches and EStop are in the "Input Signals" section (and "Input Signals" tab in the config dialog). Note that limit switches (and home switches) are assigned to motors, not axis (axes? axees????? :)